


two ships passing in the day

by Sharkchimedes



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (to the nova comics. basically mcu gotg compliant), Gen, Not Canon Compliant, two terrans meet in a xandarian diner and have a cool lunch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 10:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18715375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharkchimedes/pseuds/Sharkchimedes
Summary: Peter goes to Xandar expecting to just come away with credits for a completed job, but ends up with a little bit more than that.





	two ships passing in the day

Peter Quill was looking for something to eat when he ran across the little hole in the wall place on Xandar.

He was still caught up in the euphoria of a successful deal- and the fact that the Corps weren't as interested in arresting him on sight anymore. The rest of the Guardians had stayed behind on the _Quadrant_ with Kraglin, citing better things to do than finish the handoff or outstanding arrest warrants.

So he had been walking on his own with the zune when he'd come to a fork in the blocks and gone wandering down it to find the small restaurant. The sign was some Xanadarian pun that Peter only half understood, but the window advertisements promised things that were just close enough to things he half remembered from back on Earth that he went inside.

Walking in made him feel like he was eight years old again and going with his mom into one of the little old-fashioned diners in his hometown in Missouri. Peter had no idea how a Xandarian had put together an interior with the right mix of chrome, red, and checkboarded flooring to replicate that feeling.

Maybe whoever owned the place had done it on purpose. It wasn’t common, but there were bits and pieces of Earth out here in the rest of the galaxy, despite the Nova blockade on the system after the Kree had struck into it. Apparently they didn’t take kindly to people going to worlds that weren’t space-worthy willy nilly.

Of course, that didn’t stop the criminal element from doing it, which was how Peter had his Zune. Things from worlds like Earth occupied a weird place of being seen as backward and interesting at the same time. A novelty.

Peter didn’t really care about the socio-whatever behind it right now, though. He just scuffed his boots on the slightly dingy black-and-white flooring and smiled.

There weren’t a lot of people inside, which made sense as the Xandarian day cycle had already swung by noon. All told, there were about three other patrons. One Krylorian with pink skin, and the two Xandarians. They were all sitting at different places, and Peter slid into a booth next to one of the Xandarians.

He hadn’t really looked too closely at any of them, so it wasn’t until after he’d keyed an order into the glitching screen on the table and taken his headphones off to eat when someone brought him a tray that he heard it.

_“No Sleep 'til, No Sleep 'til Brooklyn, Ain't seen the light since we started this band-”_

Peter turned to try and figure out where it was coming from.

The guy sitting behind him, one of the two Xandarians he hadn’t really looked at, looked roughly his age, give or take a few years. He had brown hair and was wearing a pretty normal looking black jacket.

On the table, though, where the music was coming from, was a Nova helmet. One of the fancy ones that _normal_ corpsmen didn’t get- it was the sort of thing Peter’d really only seen in records and as a warning from other people on the wrong side of the Corps. Centurion-style, he thought it was.

Didn’t explain why it was playing music he _knew_ , though.

“Is that the Beastie Boys?” Peter asked, not even thinking about it as he stared at the helmet.

The man started a little and turned to look at him, and Peter could see he was holding something that looked like a burger.

“You know your exotic music?” The man quirked an eyebrow at him, clearly trying to decide if Peter was messing with him.

“Well, I am human.” He said, picking up his tray to slide in across from the other man. “I used to have a walkman, but it got… busted.” He tried not to let his mind wander too far into that subject.

“No kidding. I’m Terran too. Name’s Richard Rider.” The man offered Peter a hand, and he shook it.

“Never met another person from Earth before.” Peter hoped he wasn’t staring. “I’m Peter Quill.”

“Not very many of us out here. I come in here at least once a week. Reminds me of home.” Richard finished his lunch and balled up the paper to make a go at the trash bin a few yards away. He missed and Peter laughed at him when he got up and threw it away properly.

“Oh yeah? Where are you from?” Peter grinned when he sat back down.

“Long Island. Corpsman took me in when I was a teenager. Lived on Xandar since.” Richard shrugged. “You?”

“Missouri. I was eight.” Probably best to _not_ mention the whole ‘taken by ravagers and raised by them’ thing if possible. “Been around.”

While Peter ate, he got Richard’s general description of his memories of earth: parents, movies and shows they both remembered, things like that. It was nice to actually talk to someone who _knew_ what he was talking about, and laughed because he actually knew and not because he was just humoring him.

And it was nice to talk to someone who was also maybe a little homesick, if happy with where he was. Sure, he missed Earth, but he didn’t think he was ready to consider _going there._

Eventually, they were interrupted by a harsh beep that meant Peter had gotten more than five unopened calls.

“Oh shit- I was supposed to be back like an hour ago.” Peter eyed his blinking comm with a small amount of fear.

Richard snorted. “Good luck with that. I’ve got the evening off, I’m just gonna go home and catch up on the good old alien soaps.”

Peter grabbed his drink and stood, and made it halfway to the door before he stopped and turned. “Hey- you think we’ll meet up again sometime?”

“Sure. See ya, Pete.” Richard picked up the helmet and messed with it for a moment, and Peter could hear the start of a Queen song.

“See ya, Rich.”

When he got back to the _Milano_ , he commed the others to let them know that no, he hadn’t done anything stupid, and _no_ , he hadn’t been arrested.

He also found a comm from someone not in his contacts, but from a Xandarian frequency.

_1.7.1.1976PrimeNovaD: in case you don’t already have these on your cute little zune, here’s some of my files. don’t tell my boss and i won’t arrest you for whatever you were doing on Xandar._

The _Milano_ ’s computer easily chugged through converting the files. Peter smiled and hit play.

**Author's Note:**

> was at village inn, have been reading nova all week, this is the little self indulgent result!


End file.
